PIPELINES: Montana’s Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes are among those encouraged by President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline. (Billings Gazette)

PUBLIC LANDS:
• More than 100 local Western officials in a letter ask President-elect Biden and U.S. Representative Deb Haaland to protect public lands and address climate change. (Mountain Mail, subscription)
• Colorado sues to block a plan to open public lands in the state to drilling, in part because it was approved when William Perry Pendley was unlawfully acting as BLM director. (Denver Post)

OIL & GAS:
• Major banks refusing to finance oil and gas projects in the Arctic is cited as a reason the Trump Administration’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lease sale earlier this month was a bust. (Politico)
• An insurance company in a letter to the Gwich’in Steering Committee confirms it will not provide coverage or investment support to oil and gas exploration, drilling, or production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Insurance Business)

COAL: Environmental groups are likely to oppose key aspects of a plan by New Mexico’s largest electricity provider to exit a coal-fired power plant by 2024, seven years early. (Albuquerque Journal)

SOLAR: Xcel Energy proposes paying $41 million to the federal government to exit its contract with a problem-plagued Colorado concentrated solar plant. (Denver Business Journal)

RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wyoming lawmakers agree that renewable energy opportunities as well as legacy fossil fuel initiatives need to be included in the state’s economic diversification strategy. (Oil City News)

STORAGE: A California-based energy and smart grid solutions provider secures approval from Hawaii regulators for a $25 million 100 MWh virtual power plant across three islands. (PV Magazine)

UTILITIES:
• Up to 280,000 Southern California Edison ratepayers across nine counties face planned power outages today to reduce the wildfire risk from dangerous winds. (CNN)
• PG&E says crews are in the process of repairing power equipment in a Northern California county damaged by one of the strongest wind storms to hit the area in years and warns of public safety power shutoffs today. (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Your Central Valley)

COMMENTARY:
• A columnist says President Trump failed to save the coal industry as promised, and should have helped transition workers into different kinds of work. (Gazette Xtra)
• A California climate advocate explains why the state needs to invest more in transitioning to an energy economy. (North Bay Business Journal)
• An Oregon editorial board says the impending closure of a metro Portland solar panel manufacturing plant this year is a frustrating finale after years of cutbacks and staff layoffs. (Portland Tribune)
• A 16 year-old New Mexico climate advocate explains why a community solar bill is important for the state. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

Lisa Ellwood

Lisa is a Lenape and Nanticoke Native American freelance journalist, editor and writer currently based in the U.K. She has more than two decades’ experience working in corporate communications and print and digital media. She compiles the Western Energy News daily email digest. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University; her specializations include data journalism and visualization. She is a member of the Native American Journalists Association, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Union of Journalists (U.K.).